Proud Lowestoft Town chief Ady Gallagher insists it’s remarkable that the Trawlerboys still have a chance of nabbing a play-off spot.

Despite a difficult season that has been beset by injury problems and a wafer-thin squad the Crown Meadow club are just three points outside of the top five. And joint-boss Gallagher feel its testament to everyone connected with the Blues that they still have something to fight for at this late stage in the Ryman Premier Divison season.

He said: “The fact we still have a chance of finishing in the top five, with everything that’s gone on this season, is for me, nothing short of a miracle.

“The lads should be really proud that they and Lowestoft Town are hanging right in there until the very end. It shows the mentality of the management team and the players to still be fighting.

“We’re still punching above our weight. Leiston have spent a fantastic amount of money, have got a much larger squad than us, and they’re jumping up and down because they’re going to finish mid-table. So we’re doing fantastically well and if we can hold on in there who knows what could happen?”

The Suffolk outfit have three games left and host 10th-placed Billericay this afternoon. It will be their fourth game in eight days and a number of players’ fitness levels are likely to be assessed before kick-off.

Curtley Williams (hamstring), Shaun Bammant (groin) and Jack Ainsley (bruised foot) are all injury doubts but the Blues should be boosted by the return of Andrew Fisk who came through the warm-up unscathed ahead of Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Grays Athletic.

Gallagher said: “There’s going to be a lot of soreness and tiredness in the squad. The lads have showed courage and are doing their best in the face of adversity.

“All you can do it keep battling. We’re capable of beating any team in this league, we’ve shown that already, and we’ve been on a decent run – we’ve lost something like two in the last 15. We’ve just got to try and find that extra bit of hunger and resolve over the next two games especially to take us a bit further.”

At least two of the sides above Lowestoft will drop points this afternoon with champions Wealdstone hosting Kingstonian, fifth, and sixth-placed Maidstone entertaining Bognor Regis Town, who sit third.

And that fact, followed by the Trawlerboys’ good run of form of late, has left Gallagher feeling his men can still finish in the top five and close in on fourth play-off final on the bounce.

He said: “I firmly believe if we win our last three games we will finish in the play-offs. Teams have to play each other above us more than just those games today.

“Unless there are freak results I believe points will be dropped and we can get in the play-offs. But we know we’ve got two really tough games coming up before we can think about that.”

A 1-1 draw in Essex two days ago slowed Lowestoft’s late charge to gatecrash the top five. A Chris Henderson strike gave the visitors the lead but a penalty, described as “more than dubious” by Gallagher, saw the hosts snatch a point in the second half.

The Blues’ boss added: “I think early on in the season, having gone away on a Thursday night, getting something at Grays wouldn’t have been the end of the world.

“It’s a good point. But at the moment it was not quite what we wanted. We aimed to get three points. We went in front quite early on but were not able to force a second goal. Now we must move on.”

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Ady, why do you always without fail talk about budgets of other teams. It is common knowledge that Lowestoft have a far better budget than Leiston, but so what ? do the Leiston Manager and Chairman bother about it. All you are doing is making excuses for poor management of a team who under achieves with the players at your disposal. 3 managers on big money but play boot it football. One little thing, you would not be fifth if Leiston had not of beaten a very good Dulwich side yesterday. Get rid of Flemming and sign another 2 or 3 good players if your that worried about your squad size.